EconDefense
USC-11 / Workforce and expertise

Exchange personnel with governments, universities, nonprofits, and FFRDCs through IPA assignments

Arrange assignments for work of mutual concern with eligible governments, higher-education institutions, and defined other organizations, using appointment or detail and the statute’s reimbursement and travel authorities.

Authority / instrument · USC-11

Intergovernmental and research talent exchange

Workforce and expertise

Statute & instrument
Authority holder

Head of the federal agency, including a military department

What this does not authorize / hard limit

This is not a general exchange mechanism for every for-profit company; use the eligible-organization definitions and applicable personnel regulations.

Recorded executor

Authorized component contracting, agreements, or personnel office; assignment is illustrative

Continue to actor →

Recorded executing role; this record-specific route is not an additional institutional office.

Legal basisSources linkedLegal sources and instrument limits are recorded.
RequirementsGates recordedRead the requirements for this instrument; applicability depends on the proposed action.
Public fundingRules recordedSections 3373-3375 authorize the stated reimbursements, pay treatment, and travel expenses from appropriate agency appropriations. Office budget figures are separate institutional context, not an allocation to this instrument.
Assigned rolesRoles recordedPublic sources describe institutional authority. The instrument identifies approval and execution roles; a specific signature remains transaction-dependent.
EngagementProgram unverifiedAdded in the October 5 statutory review; no current implementing program, intake or individual delegation verified.

Public evidence describes the institution and instrument; it is not approval of an individual transaction.

At a glance

Possible toolUSC-11 · Cooperation & exchanges
Legal basis5 U.S.C. §3371

Authority holder: Head of the federal agency, including a military department

Cooperation & exchanges

Mechanism tags describe the source text; they do not expand the authority.

Availability and verification

Express statutory pathway identified in the USC scrub. Current implementation, public intake, appropriations, available balances, and transaction-specific delegations were not independently verified.

Requirements and limits

Eligibility & prerequisites

  • Obtain counterpart concurrence and employee consent; document mutual benefit.
  • Apply §3371 entity definitions and the excluded categories of federal employees in §3372(a).
  • Ordinary assignments are limited to two years plus a possible two-year extension; special tribal rules differ.
  • Outgoing federal employees undertake equivalent return service, and travel reimbursement carries its own written agreement.

Limits & exclusions

  • This is not a general exchange mechanism for every for-profit company; use the eligible-organization definitions and applicable personnel regulations.
  • Pay, reimbursement, benefits, ethics, and employee status depend on whether the arrangement is an appointment, detail, or leave-without-pay assignment.

Funding conditions

  • Sections 3373-3375 authorize the stated reimbursements, pay treatment, and travel expenses from appropriate agency appropriations.

Read the funding and execution guide

Who contributes what

Need & planning

  • Relevant DoD mission or program sponsor

Resources

  • Sponsoring component budget owner and comptroller; available funding not verified

Approval

  • Head of the federal agency, including a military department; transaction-specific delegation must be confirmed

Execution

  • Authorized component contracting, agreements, or personnel office; assignment is illustrative

Partners & review

  • Program counsel, fiscal officials, and eligible external counterpart as applicable

Office links are editorial matches to the original role text, not verified delegations. Composite labels and unmatched actors are preserved.

Coordination pathway

Mission sponsor → relevant program or personnel lead → counsel and fiscal review → official holding the required authority → eligible counterpart. Named functions are routing guidance, not verified individual delegations.

Actor and execution-role sources

October 5 statutory review

Added in the October 5 statutory coverage review. The cited legal mechanism and its conditions were examined; a current implementing program, intake, funding balance and individual delegation were not verified.

Section coverage and review findings

What this research establishes

Legal basisSources linkedLegal sources and instrument limits are recorded.
RequirementsGates recordedRead the requirements for this instrument; applicability depends on the proposed action.
Public fundingRules recordedSections 3373-3375 authorize the stated reimbursements, pay treatment, and travel expenses from appropriate agency appropriations. Office budget figures are separate institutional context, not an allocation to this instrument.
Assigned rolesRoles recordedPublic sources describe institutional authority. The instrument identifies approval and execution roles; a specific signature remains transaction-dependent.
EngagementProgram unverifiedAdded in the October 5 statutory review; no current implementing program, intake or individual delegation verified.

Confidence: High on the cited statutory text and express conditions; operational availability is unverified.

Currentness: Reviewed 2026-10-05 against official GovInfo 2024 Code text and a targeted P.L. 119-60 enacted-amendment search. OLRC direct pages were intermittently under maintenance. This is not an exhaustive certification of legislation after that baseline, funding, implementation, or individual delegation.

Review scope: Record reviewed 2026-10-05. Publication is not legal-currentness certification.